Hog buyer closing for several weeks

[smwilson]

I don't know how many of you sell hogs you catch. tried to drop a small load before lunch the buyer was closed. Knocked on the door and talked to his son, he said the processing plant was closing for at least two weeks, maybe longer. The hogs have been dieing in the trucks on the way to the plant because of the heat.  don't know if it is all the buyers or what. Might check before you try to haul them in. Then he told me the price per pound is dropping.

60 to 150 lbs     20 cents a lbs.
150 t0 251 lbs   25 cents a lbs.
over 251lbs        30 cents a lbs.

I don't have a place to keep hogs for weeks. I quess I'm going out this afternoon and open up all my traps. Why catch them if I can't move them. Thankful the hogs a been really slow in this heat. Didn't have twenty or thirty in the holding pen.

[parker]

i'm mighty  glad to  hear  it  myself ...... one  thing  better  than a  group  of  hogs  in the  woods  is  several  groups  of hogs  in the  woods .....

[cward]

Thats right Parker I agree! Even though I have sold my fair share I work alot of hogs and just don't beleave in killing a hog so when I hunt places that don't want the hogs alive I confence them to let me sale them to theses buyers but I really would rather turn them loose.

[smwilson]

I guess if you boys had to worry about pastures, pecan orchards and hay fields being torn up you would be mighty glad to get rid of the hogs. You know I didn't always trap my own hogs. I couldn't find anyone that followed thru or do what they said.  Couldn't use a hobby hunter or weekend person. Back eight or nine years ago you could ride up on a tank and there might be thirty or forty hogs there. You could cube the cows and in twenty minutes find hogs standing in the row feeders eating. I had a choice to shoot hundreds of hogs and let them lie and rot or build traps and start catching them myself. Yes I do sell them. Trapping hogs is know my hobby. I use the money to hire high school kids during the summer to fix fence, paint and hay work. I don't know if you fellas realize how close the state of Texas is on cracking down on feral hogs. There is yearly several hundreds of  millions of dollars in damage caused by hogs. I hope you can confence (convince) yourself then that it is a serious issue.

[cward]

Hey I am in the cattle buissness and that is all I do for a living I enjoy running hog dogs and understand exactly what you are saying was not trying to defend you by any means I do sell the hogs that ranchers and other crop owners ask me to to I just don't like killing a hog that I am not going to eat we have jig fields and lots of grazing lands But there is lot of hunting lands that ask for the hog not saying they don't travel but I have alot of hogs on my ranch and I ride my ranch pretty hard if I see were hogs are coming to the fields I dog the number 2 out of them and they leave and get back to the woods understand if you don't have time to do that but you will not find a spot on my place were a hog has rooted .But buy know means was I trying to offend you were I relocate barrs is 50 to 60,000 acres of hunting land . I hunt and remove hogs off of several big ranches that don't have time to get after them there selfs but do it with respect and sell ever hog that comes off of those ranchs.

[smwilson]

Not offended. I have a hog buyer only a few miles away, don't even uhook the tractor from the trailer most of the time. just pick them up and take them straight there. It is really easyest way for me.  If I had an area to drop the few big boys I catch every now and then I would relocate them. I kill a few during deer season for friends that make sausage. Been checking into maybe getting a few dogs for hog hunting. Been on here about a month enjoy the back and forth and lots of great information. Met  a few at the hog bay.

[cward]

Do you run alot of cattle? I use my dogs both ways. Oh yea I 'm not a good speller or writer just like talking dogs and hunting. I carried some guy from penn state hunting and they told me the farmers up there hate the whitetail deer as bad as our farmers here hate the hogs. I also give a puppy to a rancher that I hunt his ranch he rides in the evenings and she will bell out of the truck when she winds the hogs she will bay all night  then come in early mornings and it has stop the hogs from rooting as bad he don't have alot of hogs but they move in on his place about once a month.

[smwilson]

right now only a few hundred, had to start selling off ,no grass and no rain. Third dry summer. good years try to keep 400 to 500 bred cows. We use five border collies to work cattle, another two are wife's house pets and I think we have two or three walk ups at the barn. So that's why I'm kind of slow about jumping into three or four hog dogs. Every time I buy dog food I almost need a bank loan. We have a lot of deer on the place, just not real big. A big buck might be 120 lbs. Haven't had deer hunters in about ten years. I am not much into shooting them because it is a pain to clean a sixty pound deer.They busted up a big ranch and let it sit for four or five years it backs up on the navasota river thousands of acres in the flood plan river bottom. they didn't have anybody trapping or hunting hogs for years. there was a big rain, flood and the hogs came out of there like flies. I am probably 10 miles away. We have them semi under control have ten panel traps and three portable traps. when we first started I caught forty to fifty hogs in a week several times. Now  I catch six to twelve on a average week. In this heat I caught three hogs in three weeks. Just an old farm boy myself, lucky enough to get a football scholarship and a degree.

[Box R Outfitters]

i buy hogs for a company-- if i dont buy them-- the land owners kill and leave them laying- i promise we will never run out of hogs in our life time-- i been buying since 1994 and they are just getting thicker---they tear a lot of my stuff up---but i sure dont want them all gone!!!! its the best thing to hunt i know of!!!! i have hunted with dogs all my life and i am 56  and hog hunting is the best--- but your right the plant is closing down for 2 or 3 weeks  they always close this time of year-every year since 1994- thats when the company started up and i been buying ever since-- THE BUYING STATIONS HAVE THE CHOICE TO BUY YOUR HOGS AND HOLD THE CHECK TILL THEY START BUYING AGAIN  BUT IF PRICES GO DOWN  THATS THE PRICE YOU WILL GET---I ALWAYS KEEP BUYING FROM MY REGULAR CUSTOMERS BUT THIS YEAR I AM JUST BURNT OUT AND GONNA SHUT DOWN FOR A WHILE  HOPE THAT HELPS SUM  ADIOS  GOOD HUNTING

[parker]

well  if  you  don't  want  hog hunters  and  your  putting  out  feed  trapping  your  just  makeing  your  hog  problem  worse ....... one  good  size  boar  hog  can  root  like a  dozer  in a  pasture .....unles  there  is  dog  pressure  some  trap  wise  hogs  will  eat  you  alive  while  you  are  trapping ......i  own  800  acres  and  me  and  my  dad  own  right at 3000  acres .....hogs  don't  bother  me .....  you  can  bet  when  you  see hogs  ina  place  someone  started  them .....they don't  just  pop  out the  ground ......  and  don't  think  you  they  can't  be  killed out  they  can .....i  have  seen em  cleaned  out here a  few  times .....and  there  is  miles  of  river  bottom  woods  here a  mile  wide .....  there  is  more  and  more  people  getting  into  hog hunting ......THERE  HERE  TO  STAY ....matter  of  fact  they'll  be  hogs  showing  up  where  there  never  has  been  any ..... 


mr  wilson  i  don't  blame  you for being  mad  at  your  rooted  up  fields .... one  question  ...why  don't  you  let  some  people  you  know  that  have  broke  dogs  keep  em  run  out  of  your  place .....you  have  to  know  just trapping  doesn't  help  that  much or  not  near  as  good  as  dogging ....  i  hunt  rice  fields ...

[smwilson]

I do let people with dogs come a few times a year. I guess I am more frustrated with people talking the talk and not walking the walk. Not talking about you or anyone in perticular. For my small little operation putting out panel traps, checking and baiting them every couple of days and loading them out when needed is the easiest for me. I woud be willing to debate the effectiveness of trapping versus dogging in my case. To me it is simple numbers

[parker]

i'm not  saying  to  stop  trapping ....i'm saying  if  people  around  you  is  dogging  and  your  not  they  are  being  pushed  to  you ..and you  are  putting  out  feed...   i hunt  rice  fields  if  we  didn't  dog  the hogs  there  would be  lots  of  damage .... this is a  hogdog  forum  please  don't  hold  it  against me  cause  i  love  hogs .... ......  i  got  banned  off  texas boars  for a  while  cause  i  said  i   loved hogs ....... i can't  help  myself  i just  love  em ..... when  i see a  place  rooted  up  i just  want  to  cut a  jig  ......

[matt_aggie04]

Don't worry Larry, your in good company here and your not the only one that gets a little excited when you see some fresh tilled up dirt 

[Mike]

Mr.Wilson, running the dogs a few times a year won't help you at all. If you can get someone local to run them all the time... your hogs will be gone. They will return, but the dog hunters have to stay on top of them. I hunt all around Houston for the county, developers, parks, etc... and we've proven many times over the advantage of dogs over traps.

I love hogs too and hate to wipe them out of these places... but you have to make the landowner happy. Constant dog pressure is the key.

[smwilson]

everyone has good points. That why I am here, to pick up good information and other peoples ideas. Just have to make up my mind on which way to go.   Thanks everyone!

[rafterfpuncher]

Mr. Wilson, where I live up in the Panhandle, the state has already started stepping in and it is just making it better for us dog hunters.  The hogs are becoming more nocturnal and only feeding at night, laying up in the thick brush during the day.  They fly this country with a helicopter pretty regular and turn in some pretty impressive numbers, but the hogs just keep seeming to get thicker until we hit these places with our dogs.  You can rest assured that when Hell freezes over, there will still be plenty of rattlesnakes, coyotes, and wild hogs in the Texas Panhandle.

[parker]

you  fella's  don't  know  how  fortunate  your  are ......most  places  people  have  to  relocate  and  protect  spots  just  to  have  some  to  hunt .......   some  of  the  people  that  come  to  this  site  have  to  drive  hundreds  of  miles  just  to  hunt there  dogs .....

[USHOG]

it is not lucky to have to stay up every night protecting your crops it is hard long work. remember that these crops are our paychecks. I have watched 50,000 dollars gone in a night from these hogs. Its not luck its a curse. Dont get me wrong I love working my dogs I hate having to work all night every night. I call this produce security not hunting.  be careful what you wish for

[parker]

you  can't  be  serious  ....  your  chargeing the  poor  farmers  10  bucks a  head  plus  fuel  for  removal ......plus  you  get the hogs  to  sell or  guide  hunts  on .....hahahaha  50 k  is a  lot  of  money  to  eat  up  in  one  night ........ i have  seen  over a  hundred  head  in a  rice  field  and  they din;t  do  that  much  damage  in a  week .....

[Dexter]

the  buying station in anson texas stopped buying  hogs til futher notice as of the 26th of june



well like i say   flipm stick   and do it again,,,,,,,do yall catch and release rats,,,i hate hogs with a passion and i kill everyone i get a chance,,, dont get me wrong i love hunting my dogs,,, but i seen hogs ruin coastal  pastures,, corn fields,, ect  when i barr a hog i do it right behind the front legs